3 Ways to Increase the Visual Appeal of Your Brick and Mortar Business

As a business owner, you know that brand image is everything. From bad reviews to an unattractive building, you can’t afford to miss out on potential sales because of mistakes in brand execution. The Centerline Group reminds us that, “Despite the quality of service and dedication to your customers, it’s an attractive exterior that will set you apart from the competition and will get more people in the door.” To ensure you’re presenting the right face for your business, here are three ways you can increase the visual appeal of your storefront to get more visitors and increase your bottom line.

Luxurious Landscaping

One of the first things a customer will notice about your storefront is the overall ambiance of the area, and a great way to influence this for the better is to have well-maintained landscaping. For locations where there’s real opportunity to landscape—meaning you have grass or other foliage to work with—it’s vital to spend the necessary time and effort to make this area breathtaking. If you can’t accomplish this on your own, GreenResidential.com suggests hiring someone else to take care of this for you, which will give you more time to focus solely on your business.

On the other hand, if your location is a literal storefront and you don’t have any area to landscape, you can still bring in plants or shrubs to liven up your space. Craig Knight of the University of Exeter shared with Reuters Health that a space becomes “a better environment if it’s enriched, and plants are a very cost-effective way of enriching your space.” If this form of enrichment will make your customers happier and more inclined to buy from you, you can’t afford to forgo landscaping your business space.

Fix Exterior Problems Immediately

If you feel something is missing from the exterior of your business, it’s imperative that you address this issue as soon as you can, in order to avoid giving a negative impression to potential customers. While you may not think that this is a big deal, Alina Tugend of the New York Times reminds us that it’s easier and more likely for people to remember negative things than positive things because negative information is processed in more detail by the brain. Don’t give people a reason to remember you in a negative way. Fix problems with your storefront immediately, including peeling paint, broken windows, dead plants, dirty doors and more.

Give a Pop Of Color

A great way to make your brick and mortar store stand out from the competition is to give it some color. While you can decorate your storefront so it coordinates with your other branding materials, it’s also important to know what those colors illicit in the human psyche and if those emotions are the ones you want to be bringing up.

According to this infographic by KISSmetrics, customers give visual appearance 93 percent of their attention when in purchasing mode, and 85 percent say they look at color specifically. If this is the case, you should be positive that the colors you’re using to highlight your storefront are implying the right message. For example, yellow is optimistic while blue exudes trust. Play around with some colors to see what will work best with your environment and what will give the subconscious message you’re looking to convey.

Your storefront can be a very powerful branding and marketing material. Give it the attention it deserves and you’ll have new customers on your doorstep in no time.